Baptism records are typically arranged in chronological order and contain the following information:

Parish

County

Name of child

Baptism or birth date

Mother’s name

Father’s name

Additional details such as the child’s gender, residence, and whether legitimate may also be available on the original record.

In addition to birth and baptismal records, churching records have also been included in this data collection. Churching is a rite or ceremony in which a woman recovering from childbirth is brought to the church to receive blessings and prayers. This ceremony was not always formally recorded, but when it was, it was often recorded on baptismal registers.

Specific source citations, including call and microfilm numbers, are provided on the record level for each entry. Information in this source citation indicates whether the record is from Parish Registers or Bishops Transcripts. A notation such as "transcript of baptisms" indicates the record was taken from Bishops Transcripts.

Parish Records:

Parish records--primarily christenings, marriages, and burials--are the best source of vital record information before the nineteenth century. Before Civil Registration began in 1837, key events in a person’s life were typically recorded by the Church rather than the State. Starting in the sixteenth century, parish records are some of the longest running records available.

Beginning in 1598, clergy were required to send copies of their parish registers to the bishop of their diocese. These copies are known as Bishop’s Transcripts. Bishop’s Transcripts are useful in cases where originals are unreadable or no longer exist.

In 1812, George Rose’s Act called for pre-printed registers to be used for separate baptism, marriage, and burial registers as a way of standardizing records. These standardized registers are included in this collection. For earlier registers, please see the link provided below in the Related Data Collections section.

Poor Law Records:

In 1834 the Poor Law Amendment Act was enacted. This law formed parishes into groups called Unions. Each Union elected a Board of Guardians, which was then responsible for the care of the poor, rather than the individual parishes.

Individuals who received relief generally included the elderly, orphaned, unemployed, or sick and afflicted. In addition to monetary relief, other daily necessities such as food, clothing, and work were provided. Children could be appointed to apprenticeships or placed in schools and other institutions.

Poor law workhouses and infirmaries kept lots of records, among them registers of births and baptisms. In many London and Middlesex poor law unions or parishes the maternity ward was in the workhouse rather than in the workhouse infirmary. The registers recorded information about the births and baptisms that occurred at these institutions.

The first parish church, dedicated to St John, was founded at some point in the 11th century and was situated on what is now Oxford Street. Its exact whereabouts are unclear but it is thought to be in some region of the present-day Debenhams or the Edwardian Radisson Hotel.

In 1400 a new parish church, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, was erected opposite Tyburn Manor at the top of what is now Marylebone High Street. This church was rebuilt in 1740 and stood until 1949 when it was demolished following war damage.

The present parish church was opened in 1817. A list of the memorials erected the parish church can be found here. A list of monument inscriptions in the parish church 1400-1818 can be found here.

From 1400, births, marriages and deaths were all recorded in the church registers. Between 1817-1853 internments took place in the crypt of St Marylebone Parish Church. The remains of these burials were reinterred in Brookwood Cemetery in 1985. A list of those buried in the crypt and reinterred in Brookwood Cemetery can be found here.

In 2005 some of the remains buried in the old churchyard were removed in order to extend the St Marylebone CE School and reburied at the East London Cemetery.

Between 1733-1853 as many as 11,000 burials took place in the St Georges burial ground on Paddington Street. This burial ground was laid out as a public garden in the 19th century, some of those who were buried in this ground can be found here. In 2013 approximately 1200 sets of remains were removed from the north section of this old burial ground and have been reinterred at East London Cemetery.

Once the St Georges burial ground became full, St Marylebone burials took place at the new parish burial ground at St John's Chapel, opened in 1815, and a list of some of those burials and monuments erected in the mortuary chapel, now St John's Wood Parish Church, can be found here.